Finding Myself
by mystic feilds
Summary: about 2 girls going on a quest for their king to find a missing donkey, twinkie. just a cute little story, please r


Once upon a time in a small city, there was a king. His name was old King Elvis III. Some of the villagers thought that his name was a little bit futuristic, but didn't make much of a fuss over it.  
This king had many prize possessions, but his favorite one was Twinkie, the old, gray palace donkey. The king had owned Twinkie since she was just a foal; given to him by his father when he was a boy. King Elvis often times took comfort in brushing her brittle mane and tail when he had problems with anything, even when he couldn't find his royal comb. The king would have rather eaten mud in mass quantities than have his dear Twinkie go missing.  
One day, in late autumn, the donkey went missing. The king was desperate to get her back. The elderly man looked all around the stables, and eventually sent out search parties to look in areas around the palace (but not before eating mud), thinking that the donkey couldn't have gone far. When Twinkie was not found, the king called up his royal knights of the oblong-sided table. The nights all were lazy and none would take the job, suggesting their loyal squires to the king in turn.  
The king later interviewed all of the squires, who proved no good but two, Mary and Paula. And this is where I come in, Paula. It was odd to have two girl squires, but the knights get what they can, again proving to be lazy slobs of men. Mary is a fifteen year-old girl, the same age as me, but she can be absent minded at times, climbing trees to look for coconuts, whatever those are. I think that it has to do with the color of her hair, but nobody will believe me.  
I think of myself as an ordinary girl (would be if it weren't for those annoying knights). As for my appearance I have plain, curly brunette hair, and freckles all over my nose. For my non-physical effects, my mother died when I was eleven and since my father didn't want me, he gave me to Sir Anade. I am not one of those types of people who think that their life is horrible, or constantly try to straighten ever-wavy hair. I don't care about my looks or what people think of me. I'm just normal.  
Soon after Mary and I were told that we were to look for Twinkie, we were given two small, brown, and tough ponies to ride through the dense forest, which we were to journey through. Then, we packed our bags with warm clothes and food, she said goodbye to her mother, for she had one, and we left. Before entering the woods, Mary reined in her pony and whispered to me, with her eyes wide,  
"Aren't there supposed to be things in this forest.? "  
"What type of things?" I asked her.  
"Well, you know, the stories about people getting attacked by things . . . "  
"Your hair is getting to your head, I laughed.  
"It is not!"  
Later, while we were around the campfire that night, all huddled into our extra blankets and eating a small dinner, we started to hear thunder. I looked to the sky as the moon clouded over,  
"We'd better find somewhere to go before it rains, "  
Mary also looked up,  
"Yeah, we don't want to catch something when we've only just started,"  
"I think that there might be a little used hut or something, along the way,"  
We gathered our things, untied the little ponies, and put out the fire. While walking along the darkened path, we saw a small cabin that looked dark, but yet welcoming, by the cozy, worn look of it.  
"Let's go in there, we can put our ponies below the shelter on the wall, they'll be dry," Mary said.  
"Okay "  
When inside, the cabin, we found the remains of a fire. We tried, and failed, to light it again. Suddenly, there was a noise outside. It was a voice, one of a boy, maybe a little bit older than Mary or I,  
"Well, I wonder who left you here, gents! Let's get you some food, eh? "  
Mary and I stopped our crusade to get warm, and, not being fast enough to run and hide, straightened up and grinned sheepishly at the boy that strode cockily into the cabin.  
"Well," he said, smiling, " Are those your ponies standin' out there freezin' in the rain?"  
"Uh, yes, you see we were just leaving, right Paula? Lets go get Ernie and Steve" Mary said loudly.  
The boy looked nice enough, he was rather tall, with freckles all over his face, green eyes, blazing red hair, and what looked like a fairly cheerful disposition. I liked him immediately.  
"Oh, you'll be fine enough here, stay for the night and tell me why you're here on such a night, " Then he knelt in front of the hearth and said a few odd words. When he got up again, there was a merry fire crackling away in front of us. He got up and winked roguishly,  
"By the way, the name's Domenic, what's yours? "  
So, after we told the wizard boy, Domenic, as he turned out to be, about our journey to find Twinkie in the woods, he laughed and exclaimed,  
"That's why you two ladies are out here in the forest all alone? Well, I guess I'll have ta come with ya then. Me bein' the great guy I am. "  
"So you know where we could find Twinkie? " I asked excitedly.  
"Well, no, but you should be getting' a lot of rest 'cause we're gonna be up right early in the morning!" Answered Domenic happily.  
I sighed and it started to rain; this was going to be harder than we thought.  
  
Two days later we could hardly tell night from day, the trees were so dense. After riding through the forest, for three days in the cold, we were in uncharacteristically bad moods.  
"Get off of Steve, it's my turn! " Domenic yelled at me.  
"Ask Mary, I've only had two minutes riding! Anyway, this isn't Steve, its Ernie, " I retorted.  
"Ok, Mary, get off!"  
"No, not me! My feet would hurt! " Mary exclaimed angrily  
"Well, my feet already hurt, so get off! " Domenic told her.  
"Oh, fine, make fun of the blonde! Like I really believe that my hair has to do with the way I act! But I'll get off!"  
And she grudgingly did, bumping him on the way down. He glared furiously in her direction, with she glaring at me, and me rubbing my temples. I looked up and saw a pair of gleaming emerald eyes inside a bush.  
  
"There, are you happy now? I was so glad to -"  
"Shut up and stay still, " I hissed, cutting off Mary's whine.  
"What is it? " Domenic whispered, suddenly concerned.  
"It just growled." I said to him through almost closed lips.  
"Look over there. "  
A huge, golden mountain lion sprang out of the bushes with a snarl and another loud growl. Mary screamed and backed away, hectically whispering something like,  
"Those things! Those things! "  
The lion pounced at her, but just in time, Domenic pulled her up onto Ernie, who sidestepped nimbly out of the way. The lion, which seemed a little disgruntled from being evaded for the first time in awhile, turned to me, gathering his strong body for another attack.  
Before he could get off of the ground, an arrow whizzed past and struck the lion right between the eyes. Our attacker fell to the ground, tried to raise him feebly up to the ground, and then lay still. Domenic got off of his pony, not looking to Mary, but first helping me to the ground.  
"Damn," he said, looking at the dead animal, "That guy sure had a lot in him," Suddenly, a tall, rather rugged looking man stepped out of the forest. Domenic quietly drew a small hidden blade from his belt. The elf stepped around him carelessly and inspected what he had done. Mary causally dismounted from her pony and asked,  
"Excuse me, sir, but who are you?"  
The man looked up, and strode over to her,  
"I am called Annul, but that is not for you to remember," and with a few word, Mary fell softly to the ground. I watched in wonder the man walked slowly over to us with a smile that wasn't cruel or evil, but rather friendlier. Domenic stood in front of me with his dagger fully drawn out in front of him, and his face set. The man threw a punch to Dominic's jaw, which sent him staggering back a few steps. While he was recovering, the man did the same to Domenic as he had done to Mary. He came to me, stepping over my fallen, red-haired friend, and looked me in the eye, and said quiet that I couldn't understand. After I hit the ground, I was left with a feeling of understanding, of love that somebody had stood up for me. I was left with a feeling that I finally had a true friendship, not like the one that Mary and I had, deeper than that, almost like a love.  
  
I woke up with no remembrance of what had just happened the night before, but with a lingering sense that I was missing something glorious and warm. It was snowing lightly, and I had a blanket wrapped around my shoulders. There was a fire going. I looked up and saw Domenic cooking some food, different form the kind that we had brought. The feeling was back for a fleeting second, and then snatched away from me, like leaves from a tree in autumn.  
"Where'd this stuff come from? We didn't have any of this before. Or did you learn a new spell or something?" I asked  
He grinned, "Dunno, jus' woke up an' it was there, and as for new spells, all I do is fires,"  
"Oh. Where's Mary?"  
"She went to go look for coconuts, whatever those are. Says that they're good for you,"  
I smiled, wondering still what a coconut was. Huddling into my blanket, I figured about how close we were to the end of our journey. All of us had been riding for about five days, and the trees didn't look quite so dense now, we'd probably be out of there in two days or less. I really hoped that my calculations were right; I wouldn't have been able to stand going through the dark in the snow for much longer.  
"Hey, Paula! " Mary called to me, rushing clumsily into our little camp and tripping over a root. She got up and smiled bashfully, " I think I found something good,"  
"Great, now we can finally see the famous coconuts that you've been talking about! " I laughed. Domenic looked over at me and grinned almost half-heartedly.  
"Not that, " she rolled her eyes, " I think I found where Twinkie went! "  
"Really? Great, now we can finally get the donkey and go home! " I said joyfully.  
"Well, actually we'll have to go down a big hillside first, but there is a path,"  
"No matter, we can still get Twinkie home,"  
We looked to Domenic, who had seemed rather quiet and sad through this whole conversation, cheered up and said happily,  
"Well, if we want to get there quick, we'd better get goin'. Lets all help pack up and leave! "  
So we did, without lion attack or rain. As we went, the trees cleared up quite quickly, and for the first time in days we saw actual sunlight, not the kind that we'd been seeing, filtered through the canopy and slightly green, but full sunlight.  
After trudging through the wintry woods for a few hours, our feet wet from alternating people on ponies, and chilled to the bone, we finally made our way through the forest. The hillside was much more than what Mary had explained it as. This was more than a downward slope; it was almost like a sheer drop-off, and the path that we were told about, it was no more than a mere inward shelf cut out of the side. But, nonetheless, I still felt relieved at the fact that we were almost nearing the end of our journey.  
"Look down there! I think that I can see a herd!" Mary said ecstatically, jumping to the ground from Steve. And it was, a big group of twenty or so gray and brown donkeys looking for grass that had only been dusted by the snow near the bottom of the hillside.  
"Going down is gonna be rough, I don't think that we can take the ponies," reasoned Domenic.  
"Oh well, we won't need them it can only take us thirty minutes at the most." I said.  
"We can just tie them up out here, they're good boys and won't go any where," she rubbed Steve's velvety nose affectionately, still in good spirits.  
After loosely tying the ponies to a snow-covered tree, we started down the narrow, icy path. All of us stayed very close to the side, especially me, being tremendously afraid of heights. Through the first five minutes of our steep and winding hike, I thought nervously to myself, 'If you don't look down, then it will seem as if you're just walking.' This technique worked for a few minutes more, but eventually my curiosity overwhelmed me and I did look over the side. Dizziness almost overtook me and I almost fell off of the overhang, Domenic having to catch me.  
"Thanks," I said.  
"No problem," he grinned shyly.  
When we got down off of the hill, and into the herd, Twinkie came running playfully toward us. Mary walked up to her and put a halter over her muzzle, I was thankful that she didn't run away from us. Then, she called over her shoulder to another brown and white donkey that came over immediately.  
"Well, I said, should we take this one too?" I asked.  
"Sure, what's the harm in that, this girl needs a friend," said Mary.  
  
So we took Twinkie and her friend up the hill, with me slightly less pressed to the side of the path as I was before, but now holding tight to Domenic's shirt. When we got up to the top, we made camp right where were, at the edge of the forest. That night, we all ate well, I slept for the first full night in weeks, and I again felt the warm feeling, but this time, not fleeting, but lingering. Later I realized that it was happiness, a thing that I had almost never experienced in my short lifetime.  
We traveled back through the forest in the snow with Ernie, Steve, Twinkie, and the other donkey, now named HoHo. After hiking through the forest, for a few more cold winter days, we got to Domenic's cabin. When we came upon the worn, and now almost collapsing cabin, he invited us in. when inside, he walked over to the wall, leaned against it, and slid down to look like a sitting lump on the floor. He looked very cheerless, his hair almost drooping. I looked at Mary confused, and then went over and sat next to him. As if on cue, she walked out, to busy herself with gathering wood.  
"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked.  
He was silent, and looked at the floor. After a pause, I squeezed my hand alongside his, and held on tight. He looked up mournfully with gleaming emerald eyes, and whispered,  
"I need to go, yet, have to stay,"  
I squeezed his warm hand tighter, "What?"  
"You probably don't remember, but that man that saved us from the lion."  
I didn't respond, so he went on, "You were put under a memory spell the night before we found Twinkie. We were attacked by a lion, then saved by a man by the name of Annul Silverback," I nodded within another pause, "That man was my father, we are the protectors of the forest, and it is our duty to defend any living creature in need,"  
"Is that why you came to us?" I asked shyly.  
"Yes, but you're the reason I stayed,"  
Tears sprang to my eyes, and, still holding his hand, we kissed. Yes, I found then in that moment seemingly frozen in time, that the glorious warm feeling was of love, and I never wanted to be without it.  
  
When we got back to the city, the king was overjoyed. King Elvis was in such high spirits because of getting his prize donkey back, that he ordered there to be an early winter feast, and had pastries made in name of HoHo and Twinkie, but sadly, they tasted horribly and were frozen until about the sixties where they became a hit. It's amazing how long those things last! He also seemed to take and immediate liking to Domenic, and made him apprentice to his best wizard. Domenic is now learning how to make bonfires and do simple charms.  
As for Mary, she became the first ever girl to be knighted, dyed her hair, and forever forgot about coconuts. Now she has slain more dragons than any man has in years. I guess you could call her the first woman- powered activist.  
Well, my ending, now, eventually, I was adopted by a woman, who is now my full time mother. I have given up squiring forever, and never want to start again. I am now learning the art of painting, and doing very well in it. Domenic and I are boyfriend and girlfriend, and now have had over one kiss. Oh yeah, how could I forget, and they all lived happily ever after.THE END! 


End file.
